More than 10,000 evacuated in southwestern France as wildfire spreads

SAUMOS, France, July 23 (Reuters) – More than 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in southwestern France as a fast-spreading forest fire scorched 2,000 hectares of land west of the city of Bordeaux, authorities said on Thursday.

Wildfires have already burned more land in Europe this year than the annual average of the past two decades, data show, as the world’s fastest-warming continent has endured three sweltering, almost back-to-back heatwaves so far this year.

The governor’s office stated that five hundred firefighters were struggling to control the fire, adding that the forest fire was very severe but no one had been injured so far.

The fire is located near the tourist attraction Arcachon Bay, and most of the evacuees are tourists staying at campsites.

(Reporting by Stephane ‌Mahé, Zhifan Liu, Dominique Vidalon; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)